Stockton Vice Mayor and Councilman Jason Lee’s nonprofit, Hollywood Cares Foundation (HCF), has just been awarded $12.4 million.
The funding — which arrives as a grant from California Governor Gavin Newsom — will help construct HCF’s youth behavioral health center, the I Am Ready Stockton Youth Center. Officials anticipate construction to be completely by January 2028.
Lee, a Stockton native and Founder and President of Hollywood Unlocked, founded the Hollywood Cares Foundation in 2022. The organization focuses on uplifting and pouring into underserved youth, particularly in Black and Brown communities.
HCF offers programming centered around youth leadership (ie: its back-to-school and teen summits and workshops), giving back (ie: its annual Toys for Joy Christmas event), civic engagement (ie: its I Am Ready grassroots movement), and personal development, etc.
Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee’s Nonprofit Awarded $12.4 Million In Funding From California Governor Gavin Newsom
As the Hollywood Cares Foundation continues growing and serving the Stockton community, it now $12.4 million in conditional state funding to build a youth behavioral health center in Stockton. The award will support the construction of the I Am Ready Stockton Youth Center — a planned behavioral health campus on South Center Street that will provide services for young people and families.
The California Department of Health Care Services granted the multimillion-dollar award through the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program. The latter is a state initiative helping to expand behavioral health treatment capacity and strengthen community-based care across California.
On March 6, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state-funded grants, funded through Proposition 1. It is a $6.4 billion bond approved by voters in 2024. Prop 1 looks ot expand mental health and substance use treatment facilities. State officials said $1.18 billion will support 66 projects across 130 facilities statewide. In his statement, Newsom said:
“Proposition 1 is doing exactly what we promised it would do: transforming California’s behavioral health system. In just two years, we didn’t just meet our goal of creating 6,800 treatment beds. We exceeded it. That means we’re finally closing the gap that’s left too many communities without the care they need.”
Additionally, Stockton Vice Mayor and Councilman Jason Lee released his own statement. He said, “This is a transformative investment in the mental health and well-being of young people in Stockton.” While taking to his Instagram, in a joint post on his personal and District 6 accounts, Lee shared:
“A few years ago, I began the journey to bring real youth services to Stockton. I believed it would be a partnership between the City and my nonprofit, Hollywood Cares — but politics got in the way, and the effort fell apart.
That setback is one of the reasons I decided to run for office. I wanted to change how things worked.
Even after I was elected, the politics didn’t stop. Funding to restore our youth center and support youth programming was voted down. But when the door closed locally, God opened one at the state level.
Today, Governor Gavin Newsom awarded nearly $13 million to Hollywood Cares and the I AM READY Youth Impact Center.
And here’s the powerful part — every attempt to build this project outside of District 6 fell through. Now it will stand exactly where it belongs: in District 6, directly across from Edison High School.
This center will provide:
• Youth respite and mental health services
• Afterschool programs that spark imagination and unlock dreams
• Workforce and life-skills training
• A safe, supportive space for Stockton’s most disadvantaged youthThis project is proof that when the mission is genuine, the path will reveal itself.
Thank you to the leaders who believed in this vision and stood with our young people: Genevieve Valentine, Supervisor Paul Canepa, Assemblywoman Rhodesia Ransom, Senator Jerry McNerney, Councilmembers Michael Blower and Mario Enriquez.
Special appreciation to Mark Faucette for championing this effort from the very beginning, and to Amelia Williamson for leading the work that secured this transformational milestone.
I hope this moment teaches two important lessons:
First: Our youth are not an afterthought. They are our future, and investing in them is investing in public safety, opportunity, and hope.
Second: Politics should never stand in the way of protecting young people and building spaces that help them thrive.
District 6 — we’re just getting started.
#Stockton #YouthInvestment #PublicSafety #District6 #HollywoodCares #IAmReady”
#Socialites, be sure to check out the post below, then leave us your thoughts in a comment after!